Read Online Home to Hart's Crossing by Robin Lee Hatcher - Free Book Online Page B

while I get the girls settled?”
    “Glad to.” He released Angie’s arm, then handed her the steno pad and pen he’d carried in his other hand. “Come here, Tommy,” he said as he climbed the three steps.
    The toddler grinned and nearly sprang from Kris’s arms to Bill’s. It was obvious this wasn’t Bill’s first visit to the Hickman place.
    While Bill, little Tommy in arms, and Angie sat on two straight-backed chairs, Kris and the girls disappeared inside. Minutes later, they were back, Kris carrying a blanket along with several dolls and stuffed animals. She spread the blanket on the floor near a third chair and soon had Ginger and Lily seated in the center of the blanket, playing with their toys.
    “Sorry,” she said. “They’re still pretty shy around strangers. A whole lot better now than they were six months ago, though.” Softly, she added, “Thank God.”
    Those two words on the lips of the “crazy Kris” of Angie’s memory would have sounded totally different than the way they sounded now.
    “Can I get either of you something to drink? I made some sun tea yesterday.”
    “I’m fine,” Angie answered.
    “So am I,” Bill echoed.
    “If you’re sure.” Kris sat on her chair.
    Bill shifted Tommy to his left thigh. “We’re sure.” He glanced at Angie. “You mind taking notes since I’m holding the little guy?”
    She shook her head, rather glad for something to do. Otherwise, she was afraid she would stare too long at Kris’s scar.
    Bill reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew his tiny recorder before saying, “Kris, why don’t you tell us your story in your own words? We’ll save any questions until the end.” He set the recorder near his interview subject and turned it on.
    “Okay.” Kris glanced down at the two small girls, then turned her head to gaze toward the rolling landscape. “I guess if I say I was a wild kid, it wouldn’t surprise either one of you.”
    No, Angie thought, it wouldn’t.
    “I was using drugs and drinking pretty heavy by the time I was a sophomore. I was way more than my mom could handle, that’s for sure. She was a widow by then. Trying to raise me right and take care of this place by herself was too much. When she tried to discipline me, I fought back. I was a real hellion.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “Finally I took off with my boyfriend, Grant. He was both my lover and my supplier, and I needed him for both reasons. Over the next couple of years, we traveled all around the country. Wherever the wind blew us, that’s where we ended up.”
    Kris’s tale was not unlike the stories of countless other women trapped in the drug and alcohol culture. The poverty. The homeless, vagabond existence. The verbal and physical abuse that came in waves. And eventually, abandonment by the man she thought she loved. A succession of other men followed, complete with reckless, meaningless sex and an increasing need for a chemical high.
    “When the car accident happened—” she touched the scar on her cheek—“I was so wasted I didn’t remember a thing. Still don’t. I came to in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, and they told me the driver, the man I was with, was killed in the crash.” There were tears in her eyes, but she blinked them away before they could fall. “The sorry thing is, I didn’t even know his name. Had no idea where he picked me up or how long we were together. Days? Weeks? Months? Truth was, I didn’t even know I was in Richmond until later on. So I laid there in that hospital bed, knowing I was never going to be pretty again, that I was always going to have a scarred face. I understood the mess I made of my life, and I saw what I’d become, and I wished God would strike me dead right then and there.” Her smile, when it came, was nothing less than angelic, despite its lopsidedness. “Instead, he gave me a glimpse of heaven. It was like the walls of that hospital room slid open, like automatic doors at a